


Control

by TheQueen



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Curses, Druids, Galra Keith (Voltron), Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Major Character Injury, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Possessive Behavior, Season 6 Spoilers, Team Bonding, Team as Family, Underage Drinking, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2018-08-30
Packaged: 2018-10-22 16:01:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 10,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10700349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheQueen/pseuds/TheQueen
Summary: Lance wakes to the feeling of metal under his back and knows things are about to get worse before they get better.





	1. Chapter 1

Keith face is blank as he pushes Lance closer to the wall, dagger close enough that Lance can feel the skin start to break, the lightest of cuts. His side still hurts, pulsing where Keith had grabbed him. He licks his lips as his back hits the wall and tastes far too much blood.

"Keith... buddy?" Lance tries. His voice is hoarse like he’d been screaming. The fear makes him shake. His bayard is long gone. His com give nothing but static. The dagger is too still. Keith’s stance is too loose. But he still can't bring himself to raise his fists.

Keith does not hear him. Lance has to wonder what he sees and what he hears - what whispers does the galra witch share? What makes Keith press the knife closer so the skin breaks? The warmth of blood is slipping under his armor to stain the body suit he wears underneath. For one hysterical moment, Lance worries about stains.

He shifts, pulls away in a desperate attempt to make the pain stop for just a moment but Keith follows him, pushes closer so his teeth are far too close to his throat. Lance swallows, hard. “Keith…”

"You..." Keith mumbles for a moment and it’s enough to make his knees week. It’s the first thing Lance has heard Keith say since this mess started. Keith leaning closer to press his nose against the other side of Lance's neck. "... I-."

"Please," Lance begs.

The kiss Keith presses against his lip has Lance closing his eyes before the tears can escape. A perfect mockery of the love Keith had given him this morning. But still, it is a reprieve. If it were not for the pain and the blood Lance could almost pretend for just a moment this was not happening.

"I know you..." Keith whispers as he pulls away. The knife falls away. The blood flow is light. The cuts burn. His side aches. His face feels far to stiff. He wants to go home.

"Yes," Lance urges, "You do... Keith. It's me." He moves then, cautious, hands open and fingers spread. "Please remember. Come back to me, baby.”

"L-Lance..."

In her corner, the witch moves. More shadow than body, Lance has to admit, as he pushes Keith away, he did not expect her claws to hurt as much as they do. She laughs once the dust settles. The battle was lost the moment they stepped onto this hell ship.

"You humans never fail to amuse me," the witch muses as she steps to the side. Keith's knife fails to hit anything but air as Lance's knees give.

Someone screams. Someone laughs.

Everything goes black.

.

Lance wakes to the feeling of metal under his back and knows things are about to get worse before they get better. He keeps his eyes closed even as the sound of chains rattling grow closer and closer.

"Lance?" And it's Keith. His Keith. Soft spoken and gentle and lovely. He opens his eyes and sees two beautiful purple eyes starring back and starts crying.

"Keith," Lance whispers, reaching out. Only to stop once Keith jerks backwards, chains scraping against metal flooring as Keith presses himself into the farthest corner of the cell.

"Don't come any closer," Keith warns. "I don't know... I can't... You can't trust me, Lance." He's crying now, big fat tears that make Lance's chest ache. "I don't know when she'll come back. Even now... I can hear her..."

"But you came back to me," Lance whispers as he crawls closer. His legs feel like dead weight but nothing hurts like the way it did before. They must have healed him. But why? "You came back, Keith."

"But I don't know how long," Keith insists, watching with wide eyes as Lance crosses the little distance of the cell to lay a gentle hand on his arm. "Please, Lance. I can't hurt you again."

"I'm sorry," Lance whispers as he presses a single kiss to Keith's tear stained cheeks, "I'm too selfish."

.

It happens as they drift off to sleep. The hands on his wrist grow crushing. The mouth against his neck goes slack. The purple is slow to spread over the bridge of his nose, his forehead, and then lower. His neck and his chest. His hands. Claws dig into his palms and Lance whimpers.

When he was seven, Lance remembers in unrelenting, vivid detail the feeling of dog marks on his arms and near his face. Claws digging into his arms. Hot breath pressing too close to his neck. He'd been screaming then - kicking and punching and rolling around in a desperate attempt to get away, to run, to survive. Certain that his life was doomed to end at the young age of seven years old.

Now he lays as still as possible, certain that any move would be his last.

Keith growls. A warning. Lance takes a deep breath and presses his cheek closer to the cold metal floor and braces himself. _Don't move, Lance._ Lance reminds himself. _No matter what. Don't move._

Keith’s breath feels too hot as he nuzzles closer. Nose cold as he presses it against Lance’s rapidly beating pulse. He moves almost too slow, sedated. Does this version of Keith tire just like the real version?

For one wild moment, Lance considers asking. _Do you know who I am?_ Lance wonders as Keith drags him closer, covers his body with his own. Impossibly hot. The touches that crush his arms and his hands and his waist less about pain and more about control.

 _Stay still_ , Keith whispers to him. _Hold. Don’t move. Mine. Mine. Mine._

 _What has the witch done to you?_ Lance wonders as he closes his eyes. Sleep and fear leaving him in a surreal hyper state. “Keith…” Lance whispers.

Keith growls, yellow eyes glowing in the dim purple lighting of their cell.

How do I save you?

.

It is amazing what the human mind can grow used to. Whether it is the pain, the fear, the inconsistency that becomes its own surreal form of routine, Lance finds his feet in this new new world.

He does not know what they want from them. Does not know why they have not tried to kill them or torture them. Perhaps the witch is just waiting for Keith to snap? Waiting for Lance to fight back? _Well the jokes on you bitch_ , Lance thinks, far to smug for someone with more bruises than not, an almost beautiful patchwork decorating his chest and legs where Keith is prone to holding him down or dragging him closer. Lance would rather die than hurt Keith.

At this rate he might.

.

(Keith doesn’t remember much. Can’t. Slips through his fingers like grains of sand. But there are moments. Smell. Touch. Taste. He grows used to the sight of blood under his claws and the smile his lover gives him despite everything and prays.)

.

They notice a pattern. Time, it seems, is the answer.

Lance learns how to behave, how to go limp and submissive, how to minimize the damage when Keith digs his purple hands into his arms and how to minimize the damage when the witch comes to egg them on. It becomes a game, almost (a horrifying fucked-up game, but a game). How to discover the best strategy, the best words or the best touches to bring his Keith back to him.

“You shouldn’t have to do this,” Keith whispers at one point as they lie curled together. At one point the guards had been kind enough to throw them a blanket and they huddle on top of it, desperate for warmth.

“I know,” Lance says. Nothing about this is fair. “... We’re going to get out of this.”

There is a moment of silence and when Lance opens his eyes again, Keith is crying.

.

“I do not understand you,” the witch says at one point. Keith is asleep and Lance is desperate to keep him that way - wills himself to stay impossibly still and impossibly quiet to keep it that way. “Humans… no. No creature should stand this. And yet here you are.”

Loyalty. Friendship. Trust. The knowledge that the creature that likes to use him like a scratching post isn’t the man he fell in love with. _It’s enough._ For one wild moment, Lance feels like laughing.

“You will break,” the witch promises. “I suppose it is only a matter of time.”

.

One day (or what counts for a day in this hell hole) it takes far too long for Keith to return to him.

There is no time here. No windows. No lights to mimic the rising and setting of any sun. Lance has learned to count his breath to keep time as he lies under Keith. Sometimes he loses track, but he has done this long enough to have a sense.

When Keith returns to him, he refuses to meet Lance’s eyes.

.

“You need to eat, Keith,” Lance urges. “Please. For me.”

Keith pushes himself further into the corner. The chains around his arms rattle as he pulls his arms tighter around himself. “You need it more,” Keith argues.

Lance bites his lip and looks down at the Galra version of food goo before taking a deep breath. He sets his spoon down. His stomach protests. (For one delirious second he almost considered taking Keith’s offer.) “If you won’t eat then I guess we’ll both starve.”

“Lance…”

“We need you in top form when we get rescued,” Lance snaps. “Eat your fucking goo.”

.

With every transformation the purple spreads father. With every transformation the purple grows darker. Soon he can see patterns in Keith’s skin that remind him oddly enough of Ulaz.

“Do you think you’ll get cat ears next?” Lance jokes as they wait for Keith to de-Galra after his mind has returned. He’s bleeding. It’s bad. Keith hadn’t been gentle no matter how small and quiet and still Lance held himself, no matter what words Lance used.

(Things are getting worse.)

Keith says nothing for a moment. Lance is bleeding. It’s bad. But there is nothing they can do but wait for one of the guards or the druids or the witch herself to come and drag Lance off to the healing pods. It’s not the first time he’s been worse for wear. It won’t be the last.

(It concerns him how normal all of this has become. But not as much as it should.)  

“Shut up, you perv,” Keith says finally. The delivery falls flat -- voice to watery to be anything but forced -- but it’s still enough to make Lance smile.

.

“He is losing himself,” Haggar observers and Lance has to wonder if he has ever hated a being as much as he hates her. “How long will your loyalty last?”

Lance says nothing as he steps into the pod.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Inspired by this pic!](http://purrlockholmes.tumblr.com/post/159122458809/dont-you-think-um-beating-me-up-was-was)
> 
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> 
> Started to write this as my warm up for today and it got away from me! Updates will be a bit slow but please let me know what you think!
> 
> Also ye.... I know I haven't been posting consistently. School and a lot of other stuff have been interesting. I'll explain more when I have the chance to finish the chapters I'm working on today. But thank you to everyone whose been so patient with me!  
>    
> [Check out my writing blog for more of my writing!](https://thequeenwrites117.tumblr.com/)


	2. Chapter 2

Lance sighs, content, as Keith buries his face in Lance’s neck, a steady purr vibrating against his chest. Outside, he can hear the sound of the city amble by. The steady hum of the air conditioner in the corner just a bit louder than the steady chatter of the guards at the door.

For a moment, just a single solitary moment, he feels at peace.

.

The guards whisper when they think Keith cannot hear.

The transformations have changed him. The witch has changed him. His minds. His body. His senses. The guards think he cannot, but he can always hear.

It is useful. To hear them coming and know they will take Lance to heal. To hear them coming and know they are bringing food or water or clean sheets. It is useful.

Sometimes, though, they speak. They speak of Voltron. They speak of the war that wages on beyond this metal cage and they speak of time passing. One day, they let slip that it has been a year. A year and Voltron has not come.

Most of the time it is useful to hear what the guards say.

Sometimes it is just heartbreaking.

.

Lance kisses him while he threatens claws to his throat and when Keith remembers he cries himself to sleep.

.

Haggar watches. She is always watching. But today she watches in person, her two golden eyes following them as they shift around their original cage.

When she leaves, Lance hopes she is disappointed.

.

She speaks to him in the moments before he steps into the pod. She expects him to be weak then. His body on the edge of shattering so certainly his mind is close to follow.

She does not understand that these are the moments Lance is at his strongest.

.

And then one day Lance wakes up to feel the world shaking apart around him and knows. It is six days into their punishment after another failed experiment. Failed because they had failed to give her the reaction she longed for.

Keith is already up. Bright, brilliant golden eyes trained steadily on the door. Claws out. Purple crawling up his arms to disappear under his shirt and reappear like a collar around his neck. But still he looks mostly human, mostly in control.

When Lance stands, Keith grumbles in greeting, keeping vigil. When Lance steps forward towards the door, Keith growls in warning.

Lance takes two steps back and sits.

He’s grown used to staying still while his world fell apart around him, Lance thinks morbidly.

.

By the time rescue comes, Lance is fast asleep. Lying curled up in the farthest corner of the cell. Shiro watches wearily from the door when Keith rises without a word.

Keith carries Lance home. No one tries to fight him.

.

He is terrified at first it is all a dream.

Hunk’s arms are a warm blanket around his waist as the others crowd close. Words of encouragement and gratitude and overwhelming relief echo through the space until he cannot take it anymore. When they insist he bath and eat, Lance refuses. He won’t leave. Not until Keith wakes. Not until he knows Keith is okay, too.

The team respects that. Coran brings him food. Hunk makes him eat. Pidge brings a hot towel to wipe his face. He feels human.

When they ask him what happened, Lance watches the delicate violet fade from Keith's wrists and debates telling them the truth.

Shiro is mostly silent while the others clammer. Lance waits. Shiro watches him and Keith with wide, wounded eyes and until he tells the team enough. When Allura protests, he shakes his head.

Lance says “Thank you.”

Shiro hugs him.

Shiro, out of all of them, must know what it is like to be rescued.

Shiro, out of all of them, must understands the need for secrecy.

.

For a minute, Lance dares to hope.

.

(Keith dreams of red bleeding to blue. The smell of blood. The taste of skin. He pounds against the black walls that keep him in and thinks of nothing but _Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine._ )

.

Lance wakes to the feeling of a warm body slipping under the blanket. He tenses for a moment until familiar hands find their place on his stomach and hip. Then it is easy to melt into the warmth, to turn and bury his face in Keith’s neck.

He’s purring and it is adorable. Lance reaches out and twirls stranges of black hair around his fingers.

“Keith,” Lance mumbles, half asleep and smiling. “You’re here.”

“Sleep,” Keith commands, voice scratchy from cryo. “I’m here. I’ll be here in the morning.”

“I missed you,” Lance whispers. It’s been two days. Keith has been asleep for so long.

“I missed you too,” Keith promises. “I Love you.”

“Mmmm… Love you too.”

.

(Lance dreams of waves. Great blue and gray waves crashing, _crashing_ against crumbling cliffs spotted in green-yellow-brown grass. On the horizon, the sun watches. A bright, brilliant gold.)

.

Lance wakes to a lack of warmth and a terrified scream. Paralyzed, he watches in muted horror as Keith rip Hunk’s throat out with his teeth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update! Wrote this chapter as a warm up so I haven't edited it. Might come back and do it. Don't have a ton of time for personal writing since I have a lot of deadlines to meet for other projects, both fandom and not. 
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy the story! Please let me know what you think!!


	3. Chapter 3

They come crashing through the door, alerted by his screaming. It takes both Allura and Shiro to get Keith off of Hunk. It takes both Pidge and Coran to keep Hunk alive long enough for cryo to set in.

In the chaos, Lance watches, terrified and yet frozen. He’s grown used to staying still while his world fell apart around him.

.

“What happened in there?” Allura repeats. She’s losing patients. Lance can tell. Her hands are clenched. She’s glaring. Her hair still pinned up in a wild bun instead of the neater variety he remembers her in.

“I just woke up,” Lance repeats, eyes never leaving the one-way mirror. Keith hasn’t moved in six minutes and eleven seconds according to Pidge’s watch. He’s just sitting. Face purple. Hands purple. He glances at the mirror (at Lance?) and then looks away.

“With Haggar!” Allura clarifies. She claps her hands loud enough to grab his attention when he fails to answer. He flinches, looks at her for a second, and then looks back at Keith.

“I want to see him,” Lance finally says. His legs are shaking. He places his elbows on them, folding in on himself.

Shiro sighs. “We’re not enemies, Lance.”

Lance knows that. He does He… He-He just… “I want to see Keith,” Lance repeats. “He’ll hurt himself if he’s alone too long.”

Haggar had made him watch once or twice. The rage that sets in once left alone.

Lance looks at Shiro, “Please.”

.

Coran hands him a plate. “The Princess means well,” Coran reminds him.

Lance knows that. “He’s going to hurt himself,” Lance begs. He looks a Coran and accepts the plate. He’s not hungry.

“Eat. Answer a few small questions,” Coran says. “Then you can see Keith.”

Pidge scowls from her place by the wall. Lance picks up the spoon.

.

Coran asks the questions in the quiet holding cell with the one-way mirror. Simple things. What were his living conditions? Awful. What was his access to Keith? Constant.

They’re surprised to learn they were housed together.

They’re surprised to learn he was never turned over to Zarkon for interrogation.

He learns they’ve been gone for over two years.

.

“You have five dobosh,” Allura reminds him. “Stay in the blue circle. Don’t provoke him. We don’t know what he can do.”

Lance wants to laugh—he knows exactly what Keith can do—but he restrains himself.

They’ve restrained him – Keith- with his arms over his head. The cuffs glow the faintest blue around the edges and occasionally Keith adjusts so his arms don’t fall asleep. Lance has seen Keith break stronger. He’s cooperating. He’s in control.

Lance shuts the door behind him.

“Hey,” Lance whispers. Pidge is listening. Shiro is watching.

Keith’s eyes are closed, “Hi.”

“They’re asking what happened,” Lance explains. He’s moved past Allura’s safety zone and kneels in front of Keith.

Lance realizes Keith still hasn’t had the chance to bath. He pushes the sweat heavy hair out of Keith’s eyes. The tears surprise Lance.

“ _Shhhh_ ,” Keith leans as far as the cuffs let him and presses his forehead against Lance’s. “It’s going to be okay,” Keith whispers, breath warm against Lance’s cheek. “It’s going to be okay, Lance.”

“What do I do?” Lance begs, trying in vain to wipe the tears from his cheeks. “Tell me what to do. I don’t know. I don’t know what to tell them.”

How does he explain this?

“Tell them the truth,” Keith says. He kisses Lance then, a simple press of lips, and Lance sobs when Keith pulls away. “Tell them everything that happened to us. Tell them everything I did.” He slumps back against the wall and closes his eyes.

“And when the time comes,’ Keith smiles. “Let them put me down, Lance.”

.

Lance is still rational enough to know he’s in shock. The fit he threw in the cell proof enough of his current instability. He’s partially surprised he’s not in chains of his own.

“What did he say?” Allura snarls, stepping closer while Shiro stays, a sturdy wall keeping Lance safe. “Lance! What did he say to you?”

“You need to calm down,” Shiro says, voice still calm despite the way the ship seemed to be falling apart. Lance grabs his hands and does his best to keep the shaking to a minimum.

 _Put down_ … like an animal. Lance giggles even though nothing is funny. That’s what they did to rabid animals.

Pidge snaps once he realizes he’s crying. “Get up,” She says moving past Shiro to grab Lance’s shoulder. “Get up.”

“Pidge.”

“No!” Pidge snarls. “I’m done. I’m tired of all this bullshit. Get up!”

Lance gets up.

“Come with me.”

Lance follows.

When they come to a stop in front of the intensive care pod, Lance’s stomach sinks. He’s still covered in blood-Hunk. Pidge and Coran must not have had time to clean him up or change him into new clothes. The wounds around his neck are bloody and gaping. The skin around the wound raw from where it was slowly knitting itself back together.

Lance cannot make himself look away. He deserves this.

“That’s your best friend,” Pidge reminds him. “Your brother.”

“I know.”

“And your boyfriend put him in there, “ Pidge continues, voice growing louder and louder. “And you don’t seem to care!”

“I do,” Lance says, voice still just as quiet. He’s not arguing. He’s stating a fact. Of course, he cares.

“So why don’t you help them?” Pidge screams. “Tell us and we can help both of them! We can… find a cure! We can keep this from happening again!”

Lance bites his lip. Hunk is smiling in his sleep. There are spots of blood on his cheeks and forehead.

“Or are you going to let the universe suffer the loss of two paladins?” Pidge accuse, switching gears.

Guilt. She’s trying for guilt, Lance realizes.

“Yes,” Lance says. The universe could suffer for all he cared. Voltron and the universe had gotten on fine for two years without two paladins. He could say with complete honesty he cared for neither. The paladins—his team and his family—he cared for. Hunk he cared for. Pidge. Coran. Allura and Shiro. He cared for them.

Caring was not the issue. No… it was more important than that.

“I don’t trust you,” Lance concludes, turning away from Hunk to look at Allura standing in the doorway. “I can’t trust you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing this story is incredibly useful. I've never had a story that just works as a warm up exercise before! So it's possible you all will be seeing plenty of chapters because I've got quite a few writing deadlines due!
> 
> What do you think?
> 
> And please consider supporting my work by checking out my writing tumblr: TheQueenWrites117.tumblr.com!


	4. Chapter 4

 

Three days later Keith tears himself apart. They'd untied his arms with only a lock on the door. It had been a mistake.

“Haggar liked to watch,” Lance explains to Shiro. In the cool blue light of the healing pod, the room is washed in a steel gray. In some ways it’s peaceful. Steady. Quiet. “He wouldn’t try to stop himself then. Better to just get it over with.”

“Why do you think tried to stop himself this time?” Shiro asks. He’s crossed his arms, fingers digging into the flesh of his biceps.

“I don’t know,” Lance admits. He looks at Shiro. “Maybe for you?”

Shiro laughs. It’s empty, wrong. Lance wonders what Shiro is thinking right now. It’s so hard to tell these days. These friends turned strangers. No. These family turned strangers. He cannot read them like he once could.

When he looks at Lance he’s crying. “Yeah… That seems like something he’d do.”

.

(Sometimes Lance wonders if what he feels for Keith can still be called Love.

He knows Love isn’t supposed to feel like this. Heavy. Like chains wrapped around your ankles and your wrists and up around your neck so its hard to move without strangling yourself. Love isn’t supposed to make you dependent. Isn’t supposed to like how to make you scared.

Love is supposed to be light, to be beautiful. It is supposed to make everything better. It is supposed to make you feel better.

But Lance has no other words call it so he supposes Love will do.)

.

Lance wakes screaming.

This is not unusual. One cannot live the life he has and walk away unscathed. There is no weakness in it. It simply is.

What is unusual is he wakes up alone. It’s disorienting, even a little frightening, to find cool sheets where he expects warmth. For a moment, he wonders if he is still dreaming before he remembers his newfound reality.

He doesn’t want to stay here anymore.

He’s in the kitchen before he can consciously think about it. His only desire to be away, far far way. He misses Keith like an open wound, festering and aching. At least there, they had been together. Certainly, it’d been nothing but pain after hardship after deadly game, but at least… at least-

And now…

“Lance.”

Lance turns to the door to find an equally frazzled Shiro. In that moment, he feels himself relaxing. It’s hard to be around the others. Pidge. Allura. Coran. They mean well, but they do not—they cannot—understand. How could they?

It’s times like these that Lance misses Hunk the most. Certainly, Hunk would understand. Certainly, Hunk would be like Shiro. Shiro understands. Shiro knows.

“Nightmare,” Shiro explains as he grabs a bottle of juice from the cooler. “You want one?”

“Y-yeah,” Lance clears his throat and accepts the glass Shiro pours him. “Thanks.”

Juice in hand, Shiro moves them o the living room and starts a recording of some show about royals killing each other. It seem media is another thing he will have to catch up on.

“It’s a good way to relax,” Shiro defends when Lance raises an eyebrow. They characters are arguing politics.

Lance melts into the pillows, “Keith would love this.”

“Hunk hates it,” Shiro shrugs. “He likes alien Gordon Ramsey more.”

“Oh!” Lance accepts the blanket Shiro hands him. “I remember that.”

“He streams them legally,” Shiro hisses as if it were the worst crime.

“He would,” Lance sets his finished glass on the table before snuggling back into the blankets. “He hates it when I streamed shows back on earth.”

“Keith refuses to spend money on a movie,” Shiro sighs. “He’d always insist on streaming it months after it came out. He even turned down a date once because they wanted to take him to the regal in town.”

The lapse into silence for a moment before Lance asks, “Tell me more about him?”

“Hmmm?” Shiro hums. On screen a Galra king is beheaded.

“Hunk,” Lance clarifies. “When I was gone.”

Shiro pauses the show on the close up of the Queen crying. “Only if you tell me about Keith.”

“Shiro…”

“Only what you can.” Shiro compromises. “The okay parts. The parts that only mean something to us because they have to.”

“I…” Lance bites his lip. “Okay. Just-Just the small things.”

Shiro smiles, “Thank you for trust me.”

.

Pidge wakes them the next morning after they’d fallen asleep on the couch, haphazardly.

“Coran ran off to the med bay. Allura said to gather everyone.” She greets. She stares at Lance like one would a particular interesting specimen. “Don’t be late.”

The team is already there when Pidge, Shiro and Lance arrive. Allura is crying. Coran looks close to it.

“What’s wrong?” Shiro asks because Lance doesn’t have the strength to. He’s not sure he wants to know.

“He-He’s going to be okay,” Coran announces, wiping tears from the corner of his eyes. “He’s going to wake up today.”

It’s the best news Lance has received in ages.

.

And then Haggar contacts them.

It’s sudden. They’re waiting for the pod to finish counting down. Only a few more vargas to go. They’ve all settled down in the pod room. It’s honestly the longest they’ve all been together in ages. Pidge is working, as she always does. Apparently she’s working on some kind of communicator. Lance didn’t bother to listen for too long. She’s the one who notices it.

It’s targeted for her, for her computer. When she finds it, she tells Allura. She asks if she should play it.

Allura hesitates for a moment before giving the go ahead.

Lance panics the minute he sees Haggar smile. “You have something of mine, your Majesty,” she starts. She raises a hand, gesturing to the door, and they watch in horror as Samuel Holt is dragged onto screen. “And I have something of yours.”

She pauses to let the guards subdue Samuel properly (three quick strikes to the back of the head that has Pidge crying out). “Return my apprentice and my science experiment and I will send you your human. From what I understand, you seem to collect them.”

She laughs and Lance wonders, briefly, how far he’d make it if he ran now before dismissing it. He couldn’t leave Keith vulnerable like this. “Fail and I’ll send him to the arena for a feasting. I’m sure our Champion remembers them well. The golyns haven’t had a proper meal in ages. And I’m sure the people would love it.”

Slowly the guards start dragging Samuel Holt off screen. “You have three quintant.” She waves to the screen, “I’ll see you soon, Lance.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> XD Please let me know what you think! 
> 
> And please consider supporting me on my writing tumblr: TheQueenWrites117. Thank you!!


	5. Chapter 5

The truth -- the real truth -- is complicated. It has to be doesn't it? To make sense it has to be. After all, everything these days is complicated.

That’s what Lance has been afraid to say. “It’s complicated.” It’s gray. It’s morally… ambiguous.

(Wrong and right is determined not be the survivors but the victors).

Two years is a long time to survive.

.

The message is one-way. After the third loop playing in the background as Pidge desperately attempts to trace it to it’s roots, she slams the laptop shut with far too much force and nearly throws it across the room until Shiro steady’s her arm with a firm grip on her shoulders.

She’s shaking.

Lance watches Allura bring her close in a hug while Shiro pries her laptop from her fingers to be handed over to Coran who takes it to a machine on the other side of the room.

Lance feels sick.

There is a moment where he braces himself. Allura is watching him, eye’s narrow. Assessing something. Debating. For a moment he wonders if they’ll punish him. Then he reconsiders. Not Allura. Not his team. Strangers not enemies.

This is the scene Hunk wakes to. The pod beeps sixteen minutes too early. The door opens. Hunk… Hunk wakes up. This is what he must see: tension.

Lance stands close to the door wondering if he should make a break for it, run. Is it too late? What will happen now? Pidge is wrapped completely in Shiro’s arm as Allura stands vanguard. Lance watches Coran places a steady hand on Hunk’s shoulder and lead him to a cot. After a moment, Pidge and Shiro follow, welcoming Hunk with open arms .

When Allura approaches, Lance presses himself flat against the wall.

“We will have to discuss this,” Allura whispers. There is no heat in her voice, no angry. When she looks at him, Lance thinks she looks tired and aged far beyond her 21 earthly equivalent years. “As a team. All of us.”

Lance nods as he looks to where Keith rests, blissful, in his pod.

.

The first time Haggar took them out of their cell it was after his seventh trip to the healing pod. Later Lance will wonder if she only did it because she was bored. They are escorted quickly and efficiently from their cell to a small arena, bond by chains and flanked by three guards.

The first thing Lance notices is the color: light, vibrant, orange and blues. A far cry from the usual pinks and purples and neons he’s grown used to being shuffled from cell to healing pod to cell. The next thing he notices is the pit in the floor. In it a variety of other prisoners of all ages and size and in all states of wear and ruin loiter.

In the far corner of the room, standing on the lip of the pit was Haggar.

For a moment, Keith fights, snarling and growling and throwing his weight around in an attempt to get out of the snares they keep him in. But it is futile. In the end the soldiers bring them to her. Lance is quickly bond to the floor kneeling at her feet and Keith is unceremoniously forced to the floor.

They wait. Lance watches the prisoners in the pit from his perfect birds eye view and Haggar from the corner of his eye. Keith is still snarling.

When she is satisfied with whatever she is waiting for, she speaks to the prisoners in the pit, “Kill the half-breed,” she challenges. Lance cannot see her face but he assumes she is smiling. “And you will all be set free.”

She places her hand on the top of Keith’s head like she were petting a child. “Live,” she says, “and receive a reward for the blue paladin.”

The she pushes him into the pit.

From his place, Lance can see all. The fight is bloody, brutal. Haggar seems to be enjoying herself. The prisoners -- six in total -- all have weapons. Keith has his fangs. It is surreal to see keith turn from distance, to watch that same poisons purple slide across his skin. In the places where the purple is darkest Lance sees tufts of purple hair. Keith’s ears elongate. His eyes bleed gold.

He slaughters them all within the half hour.

It’s a true massacre. When he’s done, he’s bleeding but not weakened. His opponents are dead but still they left their scars. It had happened too fast. Lance hadn’t had the chance to look away.

When the guards go down to bind him, Keith snarls, pounces. Two dead. The third injured. Haggar leans down and undoes the binding around Lance’s legs and arms. “Control your mutt.”

Lance doesn’t wait for a second chance. In the end he walks away with three claw marks on his shoulders and Haggar's eyes watching him.

.

(Lance stays behind long after everyone has gone to watch Keith sleep and sleep and sleep…)  

.

Hunk is not angry when Lance finally gets the courage to approach him. He isn’t even hurt. But… but he is disappointed.

“Of course it’s not Keith’s fault,” he tells them the next day when they’re waiting in the kitchen and Coran has made tea for everyone. Lance sits right next to Hunk in the center of it all. It had taken thirty minutes to fill him in on all he’d missed in the last four days. “I startled him.”

Pidge glares at the table and then at the wall. Allura stares down at her hands. On his other side, Shiro sits patiently.

Hunk sighs, “You shouldn’t have locked him up.”

Lance glances down at the table. “It’s okay,” he says.

“No,” Hunk says. His eyes are closed and he takes a sip of his tea. “I startled him after you’d both just been rescued. It isn’t his fault. It was wrong of me to assume you guys would feel safe with any of us in your space.”

There is a tense moment of silence before Shiro sighs, “We treated him like an animal. It was wrong.”

“We panicked,” Pidge admits. It’s strange to hear her say it. Strange to watch all of them look apologetic. Keith and Lance had been a danger and had been treated accordingly. Lance… Lance doesn’t see what they could have done differently. Keith is dangerous in that mindset. Lance will not stop him if he does not have to.

Shiro squeezes his shoulder. “He’ll be waking up soon. With Hunk awake maybe we can start… over. Start understanding his condition better. Make things right..”

Allura takes a deep breath, “We’re sorry Lance.”

Lance just shrugs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I return! Please let me know what you think! ^^


	6. Chapter 6

Keith wakes warm, swaddled from head to toe in something soft and fluffy. He blinks open newborn eyes and feels the cool air flutter against his cheeks. Everything is still. Everything is quiet.

.

Lance watches Shiro load up a tray from his seat at the table. Hunk sits stable and safe by his elbow discussing something or the other with Pidge and Coran. Probably an upgrade for the castle. Allura returns from the bridge carrying a data table under her arm. “Lance,” she says as he finishes his second to last bite of meatloaf. “He’s aware.”

.

When Keith wakes (when had he fallen back asleep?) it's to the sound of the door opening. And then a smell… something new or… no. Something familiar. He keeps his eyes closed.

.

They stand by the door too long: Shiro out of what Lance can only assume is nerves and Lance out of solidarity.

“He won’t be mad,” Lance promises. He watches Keith breath and knows he’s awake.

“He should be,” Shiro corrects, arms crossed as he stares at the scene before them: Keith safe and warm and alive.

Lance shrugs.

.

“Hi, Keith.”

Keith smiles, hums, and turns into the cool hand against his cheek. It smells good.

“You ready to wake up, buddy?” Keith shakes his head and yawns. He never wants to move again. “There’s food.”

Keith’s stomach grumbles. He’s hungry but he’s warm. The familiar smell comes closer and he purrs. Slowly he opens his eyes to and smiles when he finally sees Lance and Shiro silhouetted by the light.

Safe.

.

Lance watches Shiro slowly coax Keith into drinking the juice box they’d brought with them and fight back tears.

.

Soon there are more and more fights, more and more massacres. Sometimes there are crowds and arenas and people cheering Keith –- Champion, they call him, or Victor -- on. Sometimes there is just Haggar and the pit and a million tests: calm Keith, control Keith, direct Keith.

Once she’d promised to reward Lance as long as Lance could keep Keith from killing at least one prisoner. He’d failed, confused what she’d wanted from him and how to accomplish it once he realized (Haggar was never kind enough to use words). No punishment followed but no kindness either.

The only plus was with each fight came more control, “If I give in, I won’t hurt you,” Keith says as they lie curled up in the corner of the cell on their new blankets. “I can control it... me.”

“I hate what she’s doing to us,” Lance confesses, resting his face on Keith’s chest so he can hear his steady heartbeat. “I hate that you have to hurt people.”

Keith just shrugs. Acceptance. “I hate hurting you more.”

.

Hunk steps forward into the room six vargas after Keith woke, bearing gifts of dinner. “Hey guys, mind if I come in?”

Shiro is fast asleep, curled up with his head pillowed on Keith’s lap, snoring softly. Keith nods and gestures with the hand not tangled in Shiro’s hair for him to sit next to Lance on the makeshift bench at his bedside.

“Hi Hunk,” Lance says standing to help him transfer the tray onto Keith’s side table.

“You haven’t eaten in awhile or at least nothing solid,” Hunk says taking a seat. “So I bought you some dinner.”

“Thanks, Hunk,” Keith says, smiling at the tray of food carrying some of his favorites like the red fruit from the Olkari and a curry that was as close to a Thai-Japanese curry Shiro’s father would make as they could get in space.

“We tweaked the recipe,” Hunk rambles. “We found some peppers that are super close to Thai chilies. Of course there’s nothing like coconut milk out here but we got close. These last few days Pidge and I had a lot of free time to experiment and—.”

“Hunk.”

Hunk falls silent when Lane turns to look at, Keith he realizes he’s crying. Quietly, Lance takes Keith’s hand.

“I’m sorry,” Keith whispers tears silently spilling down his cheeks. “I’m so sorry.” The hand holding Lance’s tightenes uncomfortably and Shiro grunts softly in his sleep. Lance leans closer and presses a kiss against Keith's cheek. After a moment of careful breathing, Keith loosens his grip to pet Shiro’s hair. “I’m so sorry I keep hurting people. I don’t understand why you,” and now he’s looking at Lance, “let me stay here.”

“No,” Hunk says before Lance can respond (what can he say at this point that has not already been said during the days they spent in the corner of their prison), “I’m sorry. I’m sorry you were hurt and I’m sorry it took so long for us to find you. And I’m sorry I scared you in a place you should feel safe. This is your home,” Hunk smiles and there are tears in his eyes. “This is both of your homes. We’re not giving up on you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trying to get back into the swing of writing more! Hope y'all enjoyed this chapter. Despite all the shit he went through, Keith might have come out of this a little more stable and the Hunk-Keith friendship fuels my soul. 
> 
> Please let me know what you think!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: Underage Drinking and Implied Sexual Intimacy.

Lance remembers the day he fell in love with Keith.

He’d been young. Still seventeen. Still on earth - naive enough to think space was one grand adventure, naive enough to think he had his whole life figured out.

Lance had seen him across the hall. Dark hair framing vibrant expressive eyes and perfect pink lips. For a moment their gazes had met, passion against awe, fire against ice. Immediate, heart hammering love at first sight blooming in the space of microseconds. Lance had thought about walking over, introducing himself. But his heart had beat so fast and so hard that he had been struck still. The moment passed. Those eyes turned away.

.

Lance remembers the day he learned Keith’s last name.

They were in class. The teacher had yet to walk in and the room was noisy with the chatter of students discussing homework and weekend plans. It had been a friday before the third weekend of the month. The bus into town was only legal during the third weekend of the month.

Lance had been doodling in his notebook, joking with Sai and discussing plan idea with Aaron when Keith had walked by. Aaron had tipped his chair back and smiled, “You got plans Kogane.”

Kogane had grunted, shrugged, and turned to look at Sai and then Lance. Lance’s voice had faltered under the strength of that gaze. His cheeks burning.

To Lance it had felt like eons. The chatter of the room all but disappearing, The world nonexistent as long as Kogane kept his eyes on Lance.

Then Kogane spoke, turning back to Aaron, “Why? Doing anything interesting?”

Aaron had smirked and nodded towards Lance, “My dear roommate has an in into Devil’s Quarters, right?”

Lance’s cheeks were still burning when he nodded. “Uh… uh yeah. I know a guy who can get us in… easy.”

Kogane smiled and Lance had thought that was no smile more beautiful. “Then I’d love to come.”

.

Lance remembers the first time he’d gotten to touch Keith.

Getting into Devil’s Quarters had gone off without a hitch. The nightclub in full swing when his buddy let them in the back for a measly 15 bucks per person and a tin of edibles cooked by his dear roommate, Erik. Sai had been nervously babbling, wringing his hands as Aaron teased him and Shivanni, his girlfriend, drew him into the crowd, leaving Lance and Kogane to step into the fray.

Instead Kogane and turned and started making his way along the wall, Lance falling into step behind him.

“You drink?” Kogane asked.

Lance shrugged. He didn’t not drink.

Kogane smirked and waved down the bartender, flashing their fancy stamped hands as proof of “ID” before ordering something complicated and gesturing at Lance.

“Uh… I’ll have what he’s having,” Lance shrugged as the music pounded on and on. The steady push of bodies and breath against his back leaving him more than uncertain under Kogane’s scrutiny. There was something thrilling and terrifying about all that attention turned on him.

“You have no idea what I ordered,” Kogane finally said when the bartender turned away.

Lance shrugged again. “I’m sure you have good taste.”

Kogane laughed, a sharp bark, before accepting the drinks and sliding some cash over. When Lance goes to do the same, Kogane waved him off. “Get the next one,” Kogane insisted, sipping from the cool glass.

Lance copied him and hums, appreciating the smooth way it goes down and the tart bite of lemon in the aftertaste. For a moment, while the world pulses on, they stand in silence. Sipping their drinks and crowd watching. At some point Shivanni waves and Lance waves back.

“Alright,” Kogane says, setting an empty glass down -- Lance looks at his still a third full -- “You wanna dance.”

Whether it’s the atmosphere, the music and the lights or the amber in his glass, Lance finds his courage, sets the glass on the bar and loops an arm around Kogane’s waist. “I would love to.”

.

Lance remembers the first time he had sex.

He was sixteen and dumb. They’d spent way too long trying to figure out how to put a condom on. The next morning she’d left through the window to make sure his Mama never found out.

He’d known her for three years and middle school but they weren’t in love. But...for a moment though... while staring down at her post orgasm with the lights turned low, Lance thinks he could have.

.

Lance remembers the first time he had sex with Keith.

He was seventeen and still dumb.

They spent the night dancing and drinking and laughing. The world spinning and spinning as they’d pushed against the crowd -- his friends and Kogane and him -- finding their oasis on the dance floor.

When they got back to the Garrison on the back of Keith’s older friend’s friend’s pick up and Lance could still play off any mistakes on the adrenaline rush of a good night, he’d dared to lean over and kiss Kogane goodnight.

One kiss turned to two, turned to six, turned to tongue and wandering hands and their friends clearing their throats awkwardly (Sai) or yelling at them to get a room (Aaron and Shivanni).

After that it was logical to follow Kogane back to his room. Logical to take off his clothes and fall into bed. Logical to let their hands wander where they did.

Lance had known Kogane for three months, spoken to him for maybe five hours but staring down at him post orgasm with the lights turned low, Lance wondered if this is what it meant to be in love.

.

Lance remembers the day he learned Keith’s first name.

 _Here’s the danger_ , Lance would think years later standing on the bow of a war ship, starring up and up and up into loveless yellow eyes as Keith screamed by the witches feet, fighting his chains and her spells, _of love at first sight_.

 _Here’s the danger_ , Lance thought starring up and up and up at the name that sat on the very top of the scoreboard, the name attached to the scores that had bent the curve that had rendered Lance’s above average scores average. The black bulky letters almost mocking him. _Of love at first sight_.

“Better luck next year,” Aaron said, slapping him softly on the arm. Shivanni standing next to him looking ready to cry in Lance’s place.

“Yeah,” Lance snarled, glaring at the top spot where _Keith Kogane_ was printed clearly. “Next year.”

_It always tends to end in tragedy._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long time no see!! XD  
> So this is sort of an interlude. We'll get back to the main story soon, but as you all know. I couldn't leave things too happy for too long. 
> 
> As always, please let me know what you think!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers for Season 6!

The first time he kills for Keith, its long before Haggar. Long before the cells and the pits and the tests. Long before she points her bony purple finger in his direction and thinks, ' _This One_.'

It’s war. It’s brutal and it’s dangerous and it’s gory. Yes sometimes they win. Sometimes they free the prisoners and get off the ship without killing anyone who doesn’t already deserve to die.

But making that call… Choosing who deserves to die and who doesn’t. Soldiers becoming executioners becoming judge and jury. Becoming avengers of death.

He raises his gun and shoots because the Galra has his gun trained on Keith and Keith doesn’t have enough room to swing his sword.

When the others find out, they ask him if he’s alright. They ask if he needs time, if he feels sick, if he needs to talk. But Lance… Lance feels no regret, no sadness, no guilt. Certainly there is the distant human emotion of horror, of knowledge that his hands killed a living person, that he splattered blood against a wall.

But still he feels nothing but pure joy and relief that Keith is standing besides him, whole and hearty and uninjured. His first love. His first… everything.

Even if Keith doesn’t remember him yet.

.

Allura calls a team meeting three weeks after Keith wakes deeming it enough time for the others to reorient themselves and make a decision.

Of course, Pidge is the most vocal. That’s her father. That’s every happy memory of Earth she has bundled up in a human being, being held in the same hands that had destroyed Lance and Keith and her space family.

She wants to go and fight. She wants to stage a rescue and take back Sam with every bit of power they have. She wants to run Haggar into dust. She wants to shoot the witch into a black hole and never ever see her again. She wanted to slit the witches throat for daring.

In her deepest darkest moments, Lance wonders, if she contemplates the true horrors Haggar is capable of. If that is what drivers her desperation at the discussion table.

Lance is silent. He and Keith in this moment, he thinks, are like chest pieces. To be sacrified or used as according to the chest master. And Allura has been less than warm these last few weeks. He wonders if now there will be punishment for hurting Hunk. If, now, Allura will point her finger and say “This One” and send Lance and Keith to their deaths as bait.

He thinks Shiro will step in. And Hunk. And Coran… And maybe Pidge. He doesn’t know about Pidge. He does not trust Pidge.

Keith is also silent until Shiro asks if there are any back doors, any way to get onto the ship without Haggar noticing. Keith says “No. She’s got an array of magical spells that I have no idea how to break. I could smell them in the air when she transported us from our cells to our holding unit and to the pit.”

When he mentions the pit, Shiro’s face turns white in horror. He reaches across the table and clutches Keith’s hand in his own.

This is when Lance realizes the obvious. This is something else they have in common now. Shiro was once sent to the pit. Shiro once fought in the gladiator battles, was called Champion, was called Victor. Shiro had been in Keith’s shoes and survived, had stayed a good person.

Keith probably recognizes this too: here is someone who survived and won.

Lance hopes Keith will win. Lance hopes Shiro will help him win because Lance cannot. He has tried everyday for the last two years to remind Keith he is a good person and lost.

Lance misses Keith in all his facets. This Keith that sides besides him has become so scared of himself when the Keith Lance remembers was so confident, so full of life, so knowledge about his body and his desires. That Keith had faith in his moral compass.

Lance doesn’t have hope for himself. He has done things. He has done things he thinks are worse than what Keith has done because Keith had no control. Keith had been stripped of every right the moment he had stepped onto that ship and Haggar had taken him with that blast of yellow-purple light.

He wishes sometimes that he had stepped in place of Keith, that Haggar had taken him instead. His frail human body incapable of doing the things Keith’s Galra half could. Maybe then they could have escaped. Maybe if Lance had sacrificed himself…

Then Allura speaks, “I can dismantle the arrays. And,” she gestures to a contact on her sheet, a name Lance doesn’t recognize. “I forgot to mentions this,” She smiles and Lance realizes this is the first time he has seen her smile in days. She looks younger. “But we’ve found Alteans in the time since… I have-- Well the easiest way to describe her is I have a cousin. They are more knowledgeable in the alchemic arts than even me and have managed to hold onto the old Altean texts that Haggar must have learned from. She could help us get in and get out without being detected or having to engage.”

“Why don’t we want to engage?” Keith asks. “Is there something I don’t know?”

Allura frowns and then turns to Coran, who turns to Shiro, who takes a deep breath and explains the story of Lotor, an alien who was born of Haggar and Zarkon. A prince who snuck his way onto the ship and into their hearts, who had made them believe he was a good person untilt he truth had come out.

They had missed all of it, locked away as they had been.

The blade had apparently helped them take down this Lotor. “He’s gone now,” Allura explains. “We shoved him into a quintessence rift and closed the door behind us. The castle you’re in is actually an exact replica of the one we’d lost, built by the Olkair. But,” she nods and sighs and turns to Coran.

“We barely survived,” Coran admits. “With only four lions and unable to form voltron, they’d come out badly damaged.”

“Four lions?” Keith frowns. “But Red and Blue…”

Allura says nothing for a moment and then nods again as if agreeing with someone they cannot hear. She pulls from her hip the blue bayard. “Blue made an exception in your absence.”

Lance feels the floor give out from under him but he does not move. Instead he is stone still yet plummeting into a hole he does not know how to climb out of. Is that why you’ve been so silent, Blue, Lance asks. Is that why….

For a moment no one says anything. Then Lance stands. “I need a minute.”

When he leaves not even Keith follows him out.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> She returns after a million years! I really liked a bunch of elements from Season 6 and wanted to add them in so here we go! Also more angst for our boy Lance and some hints at what went on with Haggar!!! 
> 
> I promise some answers are coming sooooon. :D
> 
> Please let me know what you think in the comments!
> 
> PS: Thank you so much for the 500+ Kudos!!! <3


	9. Chapter 9

The mission that changes everything starts simple. It is a routine scavenger mission. Shiro, Pidge, and Hunk take the wreckage to the left. Large chunks of shattered torn battleships suspended in zero-g like a morbid mobile. That leave Keith, Lance, and Allura to explore the remaining ship, damaged and yet not shattered, sitting on the edge of the battlefield. A large cruiser capable of carrying hundred now abandoned.

When they board the power is off. The environment is not suitable for any living creature and Lance can feel the cold creeping into his spaceship. He makes a joke about keeping the princess warm and smiles when keith rolls his eyes and bumps their shoulders together.

(They haven’t gotten a chance to tell the others about them eyet. It’s hard to come out during an intergalactic space war.)

“Focus,” Allura command, stepping forward.

Lance hesitates for a moment before hurrying to catch up. “Does anyone else feel like they’re being watched?”

Keith shrugs and Allura doesn’t comment as if she hadn’t heard him, attention only on the path ahead. “We’re in search of a battery core and anything that looks salvageable,” Allura reminds them as they enter the command center. “Coran says we’re running low on scrap as well.”

In the center of the room sits a throne. It catches Lance’s attention because usually there is only a  standing platform for the generals. But here there is a throne.

The feeling of being watched intensifies.

“We should leave,” Lance says, bayard out as he he backs away toward the door.

“Lance!” Allura frowns stepping towards him, ready to scold him. She’d been in a fowl mood all day so Lance tries not to take it personally.

Suddenly they hear yelling over the COMs.

“Trap!” Hunk screams as Shiro starts barking orders. “Voltron! We need Voltron!”

For a second, Allura freezes, mouth hanging open as if in mid word. And then it happens all to fast.

The power turns on.

The durins appear.

Lance grabs Allura by the wrist as Keith draws his sword and runs.

(Sometimes Lance donders what would have happened if they’d stayed and fought. If his first instinct hadn't been to protect the princess… But that’s what they’d been trained to do. Protect Voltron. Protect Allura. Defend the universe. They never said anything about protecting yourself.)

By the time they’ve stopped running the sounds of fighting have long since faded away. He slumps helpless against the wall as the grunts of his teammates echo in his ear. “We can’t leave him,” Lance hisses.

Allura looks at him and then behind her at the opening where they’ve parked their lions.

“Go,” Lance snaps, making up his mind. He sets his shoulders and raises his bayard, transforming into the blunt rifle. “Get out of here, Allura. Blue will take you to the castle.”

“Lance…”

“We can’t have a repeat of last time,” Lance shakes his head. “We can’t fight if you’re in firing range. Blue will take care of you, okay?”

She takes a deep breath and nods, turning away,

The next time he sees her it’ll be two years later.

.

At some point during the night, Lance makes his way to Blue’s hanger.

The rest of the team is fast asleep, all emotionally exhausted. Even Keith had slept through him getting up out of bed (or he’d had the good sense to let Lance go, Lance can’t be sure). The castle seems emptier than usual with the night lights on. Somewhere in the distance he hears the scouring of small feet and assumes it must be the rats on their way to tattle to Allura.

He doesn’t care.

He presses his hand against the pad and is relieved that the doors open.

“Hey Blue,” he sighs as he takes a seat in front of his….former lion. “I’ve missed you.”

Between Keith and Hunk and Allura and Haggar, he hadn’t had the time to think of Blue. He hadn’t wondered why she hadn’t called for him the minute his feet had touched the deck. Now he supposed he knows why.

He feels her presence in the back of his mind like a warm hug and feels the tension he was carrying in his shoulders leave him. And then the prickle of tears start. He screws his face up tight and fights back the urge.

He doesn’t know why but it feels important.

He can’t cry. He can’t cry yet.

He bites his lip so hard it starts to bleed.

“Com back to me,” he hears.

He flinches and looks up, “Blue…” It’s the clearest he’s ever heard her, ever felt her. He feels her breath against his cheek and flinches softly. “Blue…”

“Come back… soon.”

In the distance the red lion roars.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \o/
> 
> So I hope y'all liked this chapter! As always please let me know what you think (and if there are no typos because this isn't beta'd like usual lol). 
> 
> Also some personal news as the show comes to a close:
>
>> To be honest, I'm no longer in the VLD fandom. It's just become really toxic lately and for my own mental health I've had to distance myself from the show. **But** as long as I have readers interested in my work, I want to keep writing. That is my promise to you.
>> 
>> I promise that as long as there are some of you who want me to write, I will write!


	10. Chapter 10

Keith wakes to a scream. 

Distant but piercing. So muted for a moment he can almost convince himself it is a dream if not for the roaring in his ears and the pounding of his heart. He grips the blanket tight as he orients himself, sitting up so the blood rushes to his head. 

When he hears it again, he’s off, running down the hall with bare feet against unrelenting cold metal, before he can think about it. 

. 

Lance had grown up around the ocean, had learned her moods. In the same way he could understand Blue by the barely-there brushes of pressure against the back of his neck, so could he read the ocean from the crash of waves against sand. He knows when the water is his friend and when it is not.

This… this is not water he is familiar with. 

This water is too hot. Too red. It pools around his feet and sits instead of flows. When it crashes against rocks, it consumes instead of shatters. It moves slowly but undaunted, stopping for nothing, changing for nothing. 

As he walks towards its source, drawn forward by a siren call and pushed away by Blue’s steady force, he wonders if he’ll drown. 

.

Keith is halfway to the hanger bay when he runs into Allura, hair unraveling from her braid and face mask still around her neck like she too had jumped out of bed without thought. For a moment, they freeze as if caught doing something naughty. Their breathing the only noise they can hear. The silence too delicate to shatter. 

The, the mice start surry around their feet, urging them forward. 

“Did you hear it?” She asks as they run. She’s holding the blue bayard. Keith has no idea where his is. 

Keith nods. 

“The others must have as well.” She’s biting her lip. The bayard in her hand glows but does not transform, like a well trained animal growling, waiting for a command. She looks at him and then away and then back at him. “Where is Lance?”

Keith stumbles, nearly stepping onto a mouse. “Lance?”

.

Hot. It’s too hot. 

Lancelost his robe at some point. He can feel the sweat dripping slowly down his back, along his spin, sticky and uncomfortable. He rubs a calloused hand against his forehead and tries not to crumble under the heat. 

Before him, Red towers as magnificent as the first time he’d seen her. Eyes glinting in the low light of the hanger, hinting at knowledge he’d never dare to consume. For a moment he can almost feel her, her gaze a living breathing thing attempting to crush him. 

_ Come _ , she says. A challenge. 

The ocean is cold. Even when it is kind, the water is never really pleasant. It is too deep, too big. It holds too much and goes where the sun cannot reach. For all that it looks clear when you cup it in your hands, it holds secrets you could never hope to unravel. 

But this… he wades into the opaque red and feel himself choke from the heat. This is not water. This hides nothing in the same way nothing can hide from it. It is what it is. It is consuming. It is frightening. It is passionate. 

He takes a deep breath and lets himself go under. 

. 

By the time they reach the hanger door, Hunk and Coran are already there. 

“It won’t open!” Coran cries, nearly throwing his tool in frustrating. From beyond the door, Keith can feel a presence that is familiar in it’s unfamiliarity. 

“They don’t want us to come,” Keith says before he can stop himself. His head hurts, a blinding white flash of pain that leaves him stumbling against Shiro (and when did he get here). “They…”

“The lions,” Allura whispers, reverence clear as day. Keith has never understood the way the Altean religion speaks of the lions. Alive, but not. Sentient, but not. Immortal, but not. But as he feels the presence behind the door shift and grow, he thinks he’s starting to believe. 

“Where is Lance?” Pidge asks, a screwdriver in her hand that Hunk takes when offered. “Keith?”

“He wasn’t there when I woke up,” Keith whispers, hands pressed against his head. “He’s… Fuck…” he hisses when the pain returns. 

Shiro gently lowers him to the floor. “What’s going on? Allura?”

“They’re changing,” Allura says to Coran, eye’s drawn towards the door and beyond, to something none of them can see. “They’re…”

“They’ve never done this before,” Coran flails. “This isn’t allowed!”

“Blue let me…”

“That was temporary!” Coran corrects. “We always knew Lance would come back. This… This?”

“What is going on?” Pidge cries. 

“The lions are changing their paladins,” Hunk says, clearly putting the pieces together. “Lance is in there getting a new lion, right? Right? Why is that bad? Why are you guys so….”

“Your quintessence cannot change,” Allura shakes her head. “It doesn’t make any sense. Lance’s quintessence flows like water for Blue. Mine is similar so it is an almost match. For him to get a new Lion would mean…”

“His quintessence would have to change?” Shiro guesses. “What does that mean? I mean...I thought it was like your soul or life energy. How does that change?”

“It doesn’t,” Allura corrects. “That’s why this has never happened before. A paladin has only one lion.” 

“But it’s happening,” Keith snaps. He can feel the pain move, growing in his right arm. 

“If Lance attempts to fly a lion he is compatible with, he will lose his quintessence,” Allura says, biting her lip so hard it’s started to bleed. “He will die.”

For a moment there is nothing but heavy, suffocating silence. 

“Coran,” Hunk growls, voice darker and colder than Keith has ever heard. “Get the explosives.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On how much can I make Lance and Keith suffer today... :P 
> 
> Thank you everyone for your understanding and your well wishes! I appreciate it. I also hope you guys are enjoying these faster updates. I'm really excited for the next chapter. 
> 
> Please let me know what you think in the comments!

**Author's Note:**

> Stalk me on my writing blog: TheQueen117.tumblr.com!  
> Hang out with me on my twitter: @QueenMogar117


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